Ditch the Labcoat, Please.

Photo: Mike Edmond

Okay, we are now sounding like a broken record, but please ditch the labcoat during inpatient care.


I refer you to Dr. Michael Edmond's latest blog entry.


If you feel that clothing CAN TRANSMIT pathogens, and are in favor of gowns and gloves for contact precautions, then you should support not wearing long sleeved lab coats during inpatient care. Like other apparel, the sleeves will become contaminated during patient care. The contaminated sleeves come into contact with patient skin, invasive devices and can transmit pathogens. Short sleeves will limit contaminated apparel patient contact and will not hinder hand hygiene to the level of the wrists.


This infection intervention is biologically plausible, simple, inexpensive and not likely to cause harm.


So why the resistance? I suspect that many are still wedded to the symbolism of the labcoat.


Get over it.